Feds to spend billions on virtual tutors to make up for losses due to virtual schooling

Greg P. | 6:03 PM on January 21, 2022

You know, maybe someone needs to think this through a little bit more before we spend billions on online tutors in an attempt to make up all the missed learning due to virtual schooling:

NEW: Billions of federal dollars are flowing toward tutoring to help kids make up for pandemic missed learning. Much of that tutoring will take place over a computer screen — a similar learning mode to the one that showed poor results the past 2 years. https://t.co/JUUJeCcBHb

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 21, 2022

According to the report, in-person tutors would rather take jobs at Starbucks or something:

2. The ed-tech industry has grown exponentially since 2019, and is filling a gap created by in-person labor shortages. Prospective in-person tutors are turning down $15-$22 per hour jobs in favor of working at Starbucks with benefits, one source told me.

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 21, 2022

Some of these “online” tutors are done through instant messages, not video or voice:

3. Online tutoring is easier to staff, but with some of these companies, calling them "tutoring" stretches the meaning of the term. The help is given primarily over instant message without audio or video. A student may interact with a different tutor for each session.

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 21, 2022

4. I also cover an artificial intelligence phonics tutoring program, which has shown really promising results, especially given the paucity of teachers trained in these strategies. But educators and parents are raising concerns about screen time.

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 21, 2022

And it’s almost like our side warned them this would happen!

5. One Maryland mother whose son, with ADHD, struggled during closures, told me the idea of online tutoring as a fix for losses caused by online school "confounds me." She pays $450/month for in-person math tutoring for her 2 kids. This remains out of reach for most families.

— Dana Goldstein (@DanaGoldstein) January 21, 2022

You can read the whole thing here: